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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) â€” Pakistani doctors successfully removed a bullet Wednesday from the neck of a 14-year-old girl who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out in support of education for women, a government minister said.

A team of army and civilian surgeons have been treating Malala Yousufzai
in a military hospital in Peshawar where she was airlifted after the
Tuesday shooting in her hometown of Mingora in the country's volatile
Swat Valley.

The operation to remove the bullet took hours because
there were complications, said the information minister in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

"She is improving.
But she is still unconscious," he said. "I can't say a final word about
her condition. A board of doctors is constantly examining her
condition."

Hussain said there was no decision yet whether the girl needed to be taken abroad for further treatment.

Malala
is admired across Pakistan for exposing the Taliban's atrocities and
advocating for girls' education in the face of religious extremism. On
Tuesday, a Taliban gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from
school and shot her in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was
also wounded.

The country's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, visited the hospital to get a first-hand account of her condition, the military said in a statement.

"In attacking Malala,
the terrorist have failed to grasp that she is not only an individual,
but an icon of courage and hope who vindicates the great sacrifices that
the people of Swat and the nation gave, for wresting the valley from
the scourge of terrorism," Kayani said in the statement.

He also vowed that the military would not bow to terrorists like those who shot the young activist.

"We will fight, regardless of the cost we will prevail," he said.

The
strongly-worded statement was extremely rare for the reticent Kayani
and a sign of how strongly Malala's shooting has affected Pakistanis
across the religious, political and ethnic spectrum.

Malala began
writing a blog when she was just 11 under the pseudonym Gul Makai for
the BBC about life under the Taliban, and began speaking out publicly in
2009 about the need for girls' education. The Taliban strongly opposes
education for women, and the group has claimed responsibility for the
Tuesday attack.

Private schools in the Swat Valley
were closed Wednesday in a sign of protest over the shooting and in
solidarity with Malala, said Ahmed Shah, the chairman of an association
of private schools.

At one time the picturesque Swat Valley â€” nicknamed the Switzerland
of Pakistan â€” was a popular tourist destination for Pakistanis.
Honeymooners vacationed along the river running through the valley.

Then
the Taliban in 2007 began infiltrating the valley just 280 kilometers
(175 miles) from the capital, eventually assuming near-total control of
the region before being ejected in a massive Pakistani military operation.

The
takeover, as well as the Taliban's brutal treatment of civilians in the
region, shocked many Pakistanis, who considered militancy to be a
far-away problem in Afghanistan or Pakistan's rugged tribal regions.

But
Tuesday's attacked demonstrated that the Taliban have not been
eradicated from the valley and are trying to make their presence felt
even three years after the offensive to oust them.

Malala
was nominated last year for the International Children's Peace Prize,
which is organized by the Dutch organization KidsRights to highlight the
work of children around the world. She also was honored last year with
one of Pakistan's highest awards for civilians for her bravery.

No one told me nothing. I am talking about experience. Muslim men do all of the below many times over. But you did not answer my question.

Quoting Mommy2BeAmy:

Quoting pvtjokerus:

who told you men don't cover? By Islamic law they can't walk in front or appear in front of women innapropriately dressed. They must be fully clothed, they can't even raise their eyes to women they are told to keep their gazed lowered.

â€śSay to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbandsâ€¦â€ť

which "fanatic group" specifically? I have met many Christians of many denominations and I must say the only fanatics I know of are westboro baptist church and by definition most of us don't consider them christian.

Quoting mikiemom:

I believe the christian right are fanatics.

Quoting pvtjokerus:

Ohhhhh, now you say "fanatic group." Thank you for that clarification.

Quoting mikiemom:

And those christians wouldn't be included in that rightwing christian fanatic groups who think women need to stay at home, not educate themselves and pop out babies to the delight of their male rulers.

Quoting pvtjokerus:

I am sure that there are Christians that vote non Democrat in this group that have served their country and have had to spend their time over in the Middle East in order to fight the Taliban. Your comment below is unfair and tacky.

Quoting mikiemom:

the christian right has more in common with the taliban than they realize.

I hope the girl recovers and is able to continue her fight. We should all do what we can to support this cause across the globe - hint hint, Our part here entails standing up to men in politics who think they have the right to dictate what happens with a woman's body and dictate their version of morality on young women of this country.

Sister please clarify the nonmuslims who go to Jannah. I'm pretty sure you have to die with a shahadah on your tongue to be considered for paradise unless Islam did not reach you or you were mentally handicapped. Thanks, salaams

What do you after having knowledge means? Read it again. You have NO idea of who will be in Paradise and who will not be. Only Allah has that knowledge.

No one told me nothing. I am talking about experience. Muslim men do all of the below many times over. But you did not answer my question.

Quoting Mommy2BeAmy:

Quoting pvtjokerus:

who told you men don't cover? By Islamic law they can't walk in front or appear in front of women innapropriately dressed. They must be fully clothed, they can't even raise their eyes to women they are told to keep their gazed lowered.

â€śSay to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbandsâ€¦â€ť

I cover from head to toe because its not your or every Tom dick and Harry's business to see how my body looks. You have the wrong outlook. There is no compulsion in Islam so she was not forced to cover.

I spent most of my life covered in the U.S BY CHOICE until about 3 years ago and I will again CHOOSE to go back to covering when I am ready.

Per Islamic Law does not apply to many Muslim men when they choose for it to not apply to them. That is what I am talking about. Now again, my question is to you.....why do you feel that a woman should cover up when a man does not?

Quoting Mommy2BeAmy:

Quoting pvtjokerus:

What experience are you speaking from? I just told you men have to cover per Islamic law when you asked why women must cover and not men which is false.

No one told me nothing. I am talking about experience. Muslim men do all of the below many times over. But you did not answer my question.

Quoting Mommy2BeAmy:

Quoting pvtjokerus:

who told you men don't cover? By Islamic law they can't walk in front or appear in front of women innapropriately dressed. They must be fully clothed, they can't even raise their eyes to women they are told to keep their gazed lowered.

â€śSay to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbandsâ€¦â€ť

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